Killing Time or Living on Purpose?

I have no doubt each of us has been put here to glorify and further the mission of Christ. Every one of us has been given a unique combination of skills, passions, and gifts. This unique combination of talents has been designed to accomplish specific work within God’s Kingdom. We get to choose whether we will do this work. If we refuse, God’s will won’t be thwarted; He’ll just give the job to someone else.

He leaves it up to us to decide if we will spend our lives killing time or living on purpose. We can simply count the days until He returns, or do something with the time and gifts He has entrusted to us.

I confess, I’ve been guilty of spending too many days in the “killing time” mode. I am desperately in love with Jesus and often disgusted by this present reality. I’ve been ready to be home with Him for close to twenty-five years. Because of this, it’s easy to slip into a more indifferent approach to my day, begrudgingly ticking off the seconds and being ever hopeful this will be the day Christ returns. But let’s face it, it’s been two thousand years already, and it could be another two thousand before Jesus establishes His Kingdom on earth. If that’s the case, I can’t afford to while away the days. I’ve been given responsibilities to fulfill. If I’m going to accomplish the mission given to me, I’ve got to live my life on purpose and with focused intention.

The difference between killing time or living on purpose comes down to how we see God. Do we see Him as worthy of spending our every second, our every breath, for His glory? If we do, we will orient our lives around His will. If we don’t, we’ll go on doing what we’ve always done: living for ourselves and ignoring what He has called us to do. This Man gave up intimacy with God, His dignity, His power, even His very flesh, so you would have the opportunity to decide between life and death, God’s will or yours. You can coast through life and gamble with your eternal soul. I happen to believe you’ll lose and have good reasons from scripture to inform my beliefs. I might be wrong, but is it worth taking the chance?

Are you killing time or living on purpose? Are you accepting the days as they come, content to just make it through, or are you attacking the dawn with your God-ordained purpose? We all have what we need to choose. Living on purpose requires no special skill, only an unyielding commitment to the One who created you, died for you, and loves you with an unconditional love of such magnitude you will never comprehend it. Of course, spending your days just killing time requires no special skill either. All it requires is you to live an apathetic life, turning both a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Lover of your soul. You get to choose; in fact, you must choose. What will it be?